I always wind up talking about Hisayasu Satō in this column. This time I didn’t even intend to. I’m currently traveling around Europe, and I decided I’d better watch Lolita: Vibrator Torture in order to erase it from my hard drive. All three words that make up its title would be enough to raise the eyebrows of even the laziest customs officer. Okay, I’m being paranoid, but boy was I relieved to empty the laptop’s trash. So, I watched this only to rid it from my computer, knowing nothing about it except for a vague memory of reading its title in Jasper Sharp’s Behind the Pink Curtain. But a few minutes into the film, I realised I was watching something far more interesting than your usual pink flick and that it had all the bearings of a Satō film. A dodgy free Wi-Fi connection later and my suspicions were confirmed… sorry for drowning Mondo Exploito in Satō sauce.

 

LOLITA: VIBRATOR TORTURE
original title: ロリータ・バイブ責め (Roriita: Baibu Zeme)
Japan, 1987, Hisayasu Satō

Lolita: Vibrator Torture opens with a teenage schoolgirl with somewhat of a personality disorder plastering missing signs seeking a boy of a similar age. A journalist shoves a camera in her face requesting an interview about the posters she’s putting up. She refuses. Meanwhile, a perverted and impotent photographer posing as a detective kidnaps schoolgirls (in classic Japanese sailor suits, of course), takes them to a creepy rape dungeon covered in black and white photos of his victims that calls the “Submarine” (he claims it is deep underwater) where he viciously tortures them with a slimy, gigantic vibrating dildo before force-feeding them poisoned milk and taking photos of them as they cough up blood and die. It’s not too long before our heroine meets up with the killer photographer.

Lolita: Vibrator Torture is the most demented and genuinely horrific Satō film I’ve seen thus far. The camera lingers on the lubed-up vibrator with delight, capturing every detail and becoming quite stomach churning in the process. While Lolita: Vibrator Torture is not especially gory outside of some blood dribbling out of dying character’s mouths, the death scenes are very unnerving. Satō focuses on the choking faces of the photographer’s victims as they vomit a mixture of poisoned milk and blood while the blinding light of the camera flash strobes repetitively. Satō’s inclusion of the further humiliation of the victim’s (realistically) dead bodies adds a whole new level of sadism to the proceedings – I can’t think of many film’s that feature a killer shoving a giant black dildo into a corpse’s mouth. These scenes of death and fetishism have an appropriately disturbing visual backdrop. The “Submarine” – the killer’s murder/rape dungeon – is a truly inspired piece of fucked up art direction.

Lolita: Vibrator Torture isn’t just gloomy rape and torture. It’s genuinely well-made and uncomfortably funny at times. The leading lady’s relationship with the film’s killer is terrifying at times – especially as they begin to collaborate and, of course, their sweaty lovemaking/rape sessions – but as the story progresses, some ludicrous plot turns and character interactions take place that, rather than feeling inappropriate, gives Lolita: Vibrator Torture a satirical edge. Satō also scores points for his impressive cinematography – this one is full of wonderful, lingering and slowly tracking shots – and an interesting choice of soundtrack, which features rough and aggressive industrial sounding tracks that capture the time period nicely.

Lolita: Vibrator Torture is very sick stuff, especially in its opening half. But being that Hisayasu Satō is behind the lens, it’s certainly worth checking out (as I’m sure most fans of Satō have already). For those new to Satō, this is as good a place as any to begin.